Visual Essay #2

Time to Disappear

When Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale were paging through their parents’ high school yearbooks, they thought it would be interesting to see what their parents were like back in those days. Therefore, the result of that question – Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985, USA) – is more about characters than science fiction. However, in order for Marty McFly to travel in time to meet his parents, there needs to be an element of science fiction in order to facilitate that action. That element could be nothing less than time travel.

When writer/director Robert Zemeckis thought about how a time machine would be created practically, he thought that it “would be foolish not to make it mobile.” (1) The science fiction aspect of the narrative, therefore, attempts to “[explain] in a rational matter what, in some contexts, might seem supernatural.” (2) The fact Doc Brown built a time machine out of a real car, using much of what could be viewed as older technology, speaks to the realistic approach to the subject matter in which the filmmakers attempted to adhere.

Back to the Future is not a special effects-heavy film. Writer/producer Bob Gale said he believed that there were only about 31 effects in the entire film. (1) One of the first special effects the audience witnesses and, arguably, one of the most important effects is that of the first instance of time travel. In the parking lot of the fictional “Twin Pines Mall,” Doc Brown’s invention, with his dog Einstein in the driver’s seat, makes its first journey through time. While time travel is, in terms of our current knowledge, quite fantastical, the special effect of time travel in the film, coupled with that machine’s technological foundations in reality, help to enhance the realism of the fantastic narrative.


The scene where the DeLorean speeds towards Marty and Doc and disappears in a blaze of light and fire was constructed primarily using image manipulation, overlaying, and trick photography – forms which “have always been central to cinema’s fantastic visions.” (3) Starting from when Doc flips the switch on the car’s remote control to when tracks of fire rush past him and Marty, the scene was constructed in many different parts by many different directing units and teams. Industrial Light and Magic handled the bulk of the effect in post production while some of the effect, like the flames coming from the speeding car and the flame tracks after the car vanishes, was done on location.

While viewing the film frame by frame, one can pick out the different layers or elements that, when combined, created the effect of the car violently vanishing. The light that emanates from and in front of the DeLorean was drawn on the film while being re-enforced by set lighting. The wide shot of the DeLorean speeding towards Doc and Marty was manufactured in several pieces: one with the car speeding to the left, one with an explosion going forwards then quickly in reverse, one of the tracks of fire being lit, and one with Doc and Marty. The closer shots of the fire tracks rushing past the two were also done in a similar overlaying manner. The latter of those two shots was noticeably an overlaid shot, seeing as Marty’s foot, being directly in the flames, would have most definitely caught fire.


For Back to the Future, time travel was used simply to facilitate the storyline of Marty meeting his parents when they were younger. Zemeckis and Gale were approached with many ideas for elaborate special effects to show the DeLorean travelling through time, but they ultimately decided that the story was more about the characters than the technology. Nevertheless, the violent manner in which the DeLorean travels through time can suggest that the act of traveling through time can have dangerous side effects. This is only further reinforced by the death or destruction that follows each travel through time along with the peril of Marty’s own existence through the use of time travel. While we may never know if the special effect of time travel is realistic or not, even Einstein (the man, not the dog) said that imagination is more important than knowledge.


Endnotes:
(1) Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. 1985. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2002.

(2) J. P. Telotte. “Introduction: The World of the Science Fiction Film,” Science Fiction Film. (New York: Cambridge UP, 2001) p. 14.

(3) J. P. Telotte. “A Trajectory of the American Science Fiction Film,” Science Fiction Film. (New York: Cambridge UP, 2001) p. 116.

Works Cited

Back to the Future. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. 1985. DVD. Universal Pictures, 2002.

Telotte, J. P., and Barry Keith Grant. Science Fiction Film. New York: Cambridge UP, 2001.